Natural gas is a kind of gas existing in the environment having methane as a principal component and is flammable possibly including other components such as hydrocarbon such as ethane, propane, butane and the like, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and the like. Liquefied natural gas (hereafter simply called LNG) is produced in the process of refining natural gas by generally eliminating impurities except for hydrocarbon, cooling the refined material at approximately minus 160 degree Celsius by low-temperature method, and liquefying the same for reducing the volume to one-six hundredth the volume in gaseous form.
LNG has advantages in being available for mass transit in one time by volume reduction and in generating less carbonic acid gas by burning in comparison to other fossil fuels. Further, LNG contains less impurity such as sulfur oxides and the like, and therefore, LNG recently receives widespread attention as clean energy with less adversely affecting the environment. On the other hand, plant facilities for producing LNG has a complex structure on a huge scale. Further, plant construction needs enormous amount of investments in terms of morality of the industry which indicates a necessity of making safety provisions. Additionally, as a special freighter for transporting LNG needs to be provided with extra low-temperature maintaining facilities for maintaining liquefied state of LNG during the transportation, freighter construction needs enormous amount of investments in the same reason.
Accordingly, producers and carriers of LNG have been traditionally concluding sales contracts of LNG based on a contract defining long-term stable acceptance clearly to make sure the recovery of the huge investments. For example, purchasers of LNG in Japan including major gas utilities, electric utilities and steel-mill giants and the like have been concluding long-term stable offtake contracts such as “LNG sales contract in 1973” with the producers and carriers of LNG for committing acceptance of constant amount at the time of conclusion each year of the fixed term of more than 20 years.
Thus, transactions of LNG generally take a form of a fixed transaction based on a stable long-term offtake contract, that is, a transaction in which transport schedules can be confirmed at least about a year before, or a transaction in which transport schedules can be confirmed at least about a year before on the basis that dealing amount has been confirmed more than a few years in advance based on a contract of the fixed transaction and the like. An LNG market and a charter market for LNG freighter for carrying out a spot transaction based on a temporary contract, that is, a transaction based on one-time sales contract or based on an intermittent supply contract which is completed in a few times of transaction are not provided.
In view of the recovery of the investment, a producer concludes a long-term contract on a condition of limited recourse finance composition and a carriers can recover the investments by concluding a long-term charter party, and therefore, a purchaser who is burdened with a contract clause of ‘Take or Pay’ (hereafter called T/P), that is, “You must take them or pay for them if not” bears the largest commercial risk. Therefore, sharing the purchaser's risk with other purchasers and with the producer or the carrier on the premise of transfer to other purchasers is considered as a condition to achieve expansion of spot transactions.
That is, if LNG project which doesn't necessarily require conclusion of a long-term contract over total amount of production is appeared, and if a carrier which is free from constraint by reciprocal relations appears at the same time, a spot transaction with quantitative degree of freedom may be practicable. If the scale of spot transaction is expanded, the expansion is assumed to have an impact with respect to the LNG market as will be mentioned below.
That is, in the United States, purchase price of LNG has a tendency to be determined by setting the price of natural gas in New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) as an index on a net back basis, that is, on a basis of a theoretical price obtained by subtracting costs from the price of products in a consumer nation and inverse operating the result. And the price of natural gas in the United States is completely referred to demand and supply. Further, as for the LNG price destined for Europe, the price reflects demand and supply for the most part. Because the LNG price competes with prices of pipeline (hereafter simply called P/L) gas consisting of a plurality of supply sources under a net back system linked to competitive price of energy such as heavy oil, light oil, coal, electric power and the like.
By contrast, in Asia where the provision of P/L network is inadequate and relative long-term contract for ensuring stable supply holds a majority, as the LNG price is linked to the price of oil which is a competitive fuel, demand and supply of LNG is not reflected to the price system. On the other hand, a possibility is pointed out that countries planning to introduce LNG newly may have their own LNG price. And there are cases where the price determination is linked to the oil price or where the fixed price is adopted under the present circumstances. In the above-mentioned countries where the purchasers have relatively less credibility, a contract form which is not necessarily committed for the long term may be taken. With expansion of the spot transaction, a mechanism for determining the LNG price of existing players possibly becomes out of the mainstream of the market including new players. Consequently, a possibility that the LNG price may be off a linkage of the oil price is suggested.
Further, according to the circumstances such as sluggish demand for natural gas in Asia, entry of independent power producers (hereafter simply called IPP) into the market or deregulation of the electric industry and the gas industry and the like, the further of demand for LNG is uncertain. Then the transactions with consumer nations tend to be short-termed with small-lot, and therefore, startup of a new large-scale LNG project which requires acceptance of LNG with large amount in long term is expected to be difficult.
However, LNG is not commercialized (Commodity) in the present stage, no possibility of resale (trading) by involvement of the third parties is raised. But for the producers, there seems to be room for potential trading, because quantity of LNG production is constant while quantity demanded is fluctuated depending on the seasons and the climate. If the spot transaction becomes active, the number of players increases due to entry of IPP, and countries planning to introduce LNG newly, appearance of traders responsible for connecting the producers with the purchasers can be expected in future.
An ideal demand of natural gas and LNG for the producers is to maintain even delivery by corresponding to LNG production capacity of LNG liquefaction facilities, that is, monthly constant supply by constant production combining purchasers having various patterns of demand together. However, it is difficult to combine another producer with a purchaser, a producer with another purchaser or a purchaser with another purchaser without breaking delivery pattern insured between producers and purchasers under existing long-term contract.
If a scheme to startup a project without committing a part of contracted amount and securing all finances by long-term contracts is constructed through cost reduction of LNG project and dispersion of risk among the parties concerned in the future, advancement of spot transaction can be highly expected. Additionally, when uncertainty about stable supply arises, if a market has been created, products may be procured from the market. Thus, provision of LNG market through expansion of spot transaction is expected to be supplementary to long-term contracts including T/P and seemed to be worthwhile in terms of security of energy.
However, surplus production capacity and surplus transportation capacity which are regarded as essential conditions for development of spot transaction are limited narrowly. That is, it is under a circumstance that a scheme for responding to purchaser's needs by providing flexible transactions with respect to uncertain demand is not constructed completely Even in the event that new surplus capacity arises, it is hard to expect that the arisen capacity readily leads to expansion of transactions with a high degree of freedom.
Further, if producers, carriers, and purchasers are not exist independently in LNG market primarily, transportation capacity as a common carriage, that is, transportation capacity with general versatility would not arise. But in a current model of LNG transaction such as CIF (Cost Insurance and Freight term), that is, terms of sale specifying that a producer bears freight costs from a loading port to an unloading port and insurance premium for commodities, or FOB (Free On Board), that is, condition in which a producer load the commodities into a designated ship on the producer's own expense and responsibility and after the instant when delivery of the products are completed, ownership, expense and risk bearing are transferred to a purchaser, carriers are incorporated either in producers or purchasers.
In order that a purchaser pursue price incentive that is another essential condition for developing spot transaction under the above-mentioned condition, FOB is advantageous as means of transport is reserved on one's own However, it is difficult for a purchaser to take advantage of the price incentive in a strong, relative business relation with a producer based on a rigid contract clause of a long-term contract with T/P. Accordingly, there is a problem that development of spot transaction in LNG market is accompanied with a great deal of difficulties.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a transaction coordinating device, system, methods, information recording medium and program products capable of inserting a commodity transaction with flexible contract into commodity transactions with rigid contract easily.